Ego Actus (production company) is Latin for "My Way." In 2009, Joan Kane and Bruce A! Kraemer created an independent theatre in company dedicated to doing art for art's sake. Each artist brings his or her own way of creating to our shows and we unify them into a collective "my way." Joan directs and Bruce designs, they both produce. Everything we have presented to date has been in Manhattan or Europe, plus one show in Philadelphia. Our off-Broadway shows have included Play Nice! at 59e59 theaters, I Know What Boys Want at Theatre Row and Sycorax, Cyber Queen of Qamara at HERE. We presented both Safe and what do you mean in the East to Edinburgh Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We have done 21 festival shows in ten different festivals including the Prague Fringe, the United Solo Festival and the FringeArts. Our shows have been nominated for 61 awards, of which we have won 21. We have also done 16 stand alone shows including Equity productions at Theatre Row, HERE, Theater for a New City, Urban Stages, and the WorkShop Theater. We are affiliated with the League of Independent Theater and Fractured Atlas.

Joan was named Best Director of the 2016 United Solo Festival and keeps some pretty good company in the Festival's latest mission statement:"... Shows are also considered for awards in many categories. Winners from past seasons include Pedro Almodovar, Gordon Clapp, Sherry Glaser, Richard A. Harris, Joan Kane, Ann Morrison, Estelle Parsons, Austin Pendleton, Mimi Quillin, LynnMarie Rink,

Eric Roberts, and Addie Walsh."

Bruce A! Kraemer (producer, playwright and designer) is the producer of all Ego Actus shows. He wrote what do you mean which played at 59e59 Theater and in the 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. His Identity Paper was in the 2016 United Solo Festival and he co-wrote Kafka’s Belinda which played in the 2015 Prague Fringe Festival and was nominated for an Inspiration Award. He has done lighting design for Roundabout Theatre and Soho Rep and has designed shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Ensemble Studio Theatre, 59e59 Theaters, HERE, the NYC Fringe, Theatre Row, and many others. Bruce also does TV and event lighting, audio, technical direction, stage management, production intercom and RF coordination. He has done one or another of those for the Summer and Winter Olympics, the Paralympics, the World Cup, two Papal visits, three Superbowls, the Commonwealth Games, the Goodwill Games, six Tony Awards, the Grammys, three Video Music Awards, the WNBA All Star Game, the NBA All Star game, the NBA Draft, four NFL Drafts, the MLB Draft, ten Christmas Tree Lightings at Rockefeller Center, on Broadway, off Broadway, off off Broadway, for dance, fashion shows, art installations and hundreds of corporate events.

Joan Kane (director) is the founding Artistic Director of Ego Actus and directed I Know What Boys Want at Theatre Row, Six Characters in Search of an Author in Oslo, Norway and Kafka’s Belinda in Prague. She also directed both Safe and what do you mean at 59e59 theaters and in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, getting four star reviews for each. Joan was awarded Best Director in the 2016 United Solo Festival and was named to the Indie Theatre Hall of Fame by nytheatre.com. She has also directed plays and readings for the Lark, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the NY Fringe Festival, Theater for the New City, Urban Stages, Workshop Theater, Nylon Fusion, Abingdon Theatre, Oberon Theatre, the Samuel French Short Play Festival, the Midtown International Festival, the Actors Studio and T. Schreiber Studio. Joan has an MFA in Directing from The New School, an MS in Museum Education from Bank Street College. She is a member of The New York Madness Company, the Dramatists Guild and the Society of Stage Directors & Choreographers. Joan currently serves as a Vice President for Programming on the Board of Directors of the League of Professional Theatre Women.

nytheatre.com named Joan Kane one of their 2011 People of the Yearin honor of her contributions to the NY theatre scene